Payment Methods

Alright so as most of you know I put my boat up for sale. I am already drawing interest for it which is great but I have some questions.

I want to only accept cash for this since so much can go wrong with online adds, not saying the people here can’t be trusted, but on Craigslist. A man wants to pay me via paypal then arrange for the boat to be picked up at a later date. The guy has only texted me. What you guys think of paypal and is there anyway for him to scam me there?

I really don’t trust anything but cash.

Adam Bartusek

Maybe you you write your ad similar to this one posted yesterday:

Ad Excellence

There was a very similar post to this not to long ago. The standard answer seems to be don’t trust this form of payment. Tell him you will take cash on delivery or pickup only!

I recently ask this very question.

Paypal

In the end, I decided Paypal was to risky and backed out of a transaction. I had to deal with the ramifications of one ticked off buyer. In the end I got my asking price in cash.

I would only trust cash or a cashiers check from the bank….sounds like the making of some kind of scam maybe not, but have been burned before and won’t again

The scary part about Paypal. The buyer has 21 days to claim they didn’t get the product or it was mis-represented. What if he/she hits a stump 2 days after the sale? Sure you probably still end up with your money if you do all the proper documentation, however your funds can be frozen for up to 90 days.

I do not want to stir the pot, and appreciate all the risks when selling something via the great world wide web, but I personally have had outstanding luck with pay Pal. Have done many trasactions and some have been prertty large and haven’t regreted one.
Downfall, Pay Pal charges you some transaction fees and the larger the billing, the larger the cost.

Yes, cash in hand is always best, but once his funds are into you account, he can’t get them back (although Pay Pal will assist with deals gone bad if you were to be the one not on the up & up)no pun intended.

Just nothing more than my $.02.
Good luck with your sale.

The thing is this guy has only texted me… That’s why I am worried. He wants to give me paypal money then pick up the boat at a later date. Didn’t even say he wanted to see it run or anything. Who does that?

I have done thousands of transactions with paypal, both buying and selling. I would NEVER accept paypal on any sort of boat or vehicle. Never. Its just not smart.

Safest method for a large transaction would be to meet the buyer at your bank and have them verify all funds and title work. Guaranteed safe!! I always say the first person to put the money in my hands gets the sale. Otherwise, you end up playing too much time trying to manage all contacts and back and forth BS!

Quote:

---

The thing is this guy has only texted me… That’s why I am worried. He wants to give me paypal money then pick up the boat at a later date. Didn’t even say he wanted to see it run or anything. Who does that?

---

Nobody I would trust. That’s for sure.

I agree that cash in hand is best for large transactions like boats/vehicles. If the buyer is that serious, he should find a way to make it happen. It’s sketchy that the buyer has only texted and hasn’t actually talked with you or wanted to see boat. It’s usually a red flag when someone wants to pay upfront for something they’ve not seen and their payment method is anything but cash.

Quote:

---

The thing is this guy has only texted me… That’s why I am worried. He wants to give me paypal money then pick up the boat at a later date. Didn’t even say he wanted to see it run or anything. Who does that?

---

That seems to be the classic pay pal scam. Kooty’s issue was a little different. I would tell the guy who sent you the text to come with cash and I will bet you will never hear from him again

Trust your gut and walk away.
If anyone is serious about buying something they can make a phone call.
Phone calls are common courtesy, you can ask a question in 10 seconds, but to text it takes much longer. It is a waste of time.
Do you do business with a company by text?

Cash talks anything less walks.
If you can not come up with $4000 cash you should not be making the purchase…

red flag if someone is offering to buy a used boat with out even coming to look at it let alone ask a question or two about it.

I say scam.

sounds fishy. I wouldn’t do it. perfect time of year to be selling a boat anyways should be plenty of buyers.

They will send you a fradulat check thats looks like a certified post office check or some other type. They will send more then the amount and ask you to send the diffrence back to them. Beings its paypal they might have found a way to make a fradulant deposit, then ask for the remaining, over and above amount back, which will be good on your part but not thiers. Beings your honest your check or transaction will be good which they deposite in thier bank and get the money from, and theirs will be fradulant and you’ll loose out. Its a smart scam and alot of people fall for it. 2 bits says the number they were calling from is a recently setup number and won’t be there a month from now. I wouldn’t do it and especially on a boat, Why wouldn’
t they come and atleast listen to the motor run and what the boat looks like. Send them back a text to ask why they don’t want to see it. If thier answer is that they trust you and that your saying what it is, stay away from them, its a scam, guaranteed.

If he’s got the money for the purchase he shouldn’t care if you ask for cash money. Tell the buyers to be more like Randy Moss. Straight cash homie.

What he is probably going to do is charge the balance to a stolen credit card through paypal. You get the money, he takes the boat. A couple days later you will get a notice that paypal has withdrawn the money from your account because of fraud. Then you will get a visit from your local police dept asking for info on the guy who picked up the boat. The boat will be chopped into a million pieces or sold off to another victim for cash within 24 hours of him taking it. You will be out your boat and the money.

Buy unseen? I THINK NOT, CASH, CASHIERS CHECK ONLY, YOUR POLICY!

I say scam Serious buyer would want to look at the boat. Be patient a real buyer will come along.

As a society we have become too trusting. In a world based on electronics we have become easy targets for scams. The boat purchase issue you have described is very similar to one a friend of mine narrowly escaped. He had an offer on a used boat that was advertised on line. The buyer claimed to be in California and wanted the boat shipped to one location then changed his mind and wanted it shipped elsewhere. The buyer paid for the boat with a VALID credit card. The problem was the identification he faxed was FORGED and the credit card account was part of a stolen identity. Gone are the days we trusted everyone on their WORD. The scammers could be hovering over this thread waiting to strike. Always use CAUTION!!!

CA$H or better yet, GOLD ! PAYPAL is more for BUYER protection and can really mess with a seller IMHO.